Price: 79¢ at Target
Serving: 1 cup, 2.05oz. (+ water)
Calories: 220
Fat: 7%, 4.5g
Cholesterol: 2%, 5mg
Sodium: 25%, 590mg
Protein: 7g
Carbohydrates: 13%, 39g
Fiber: 4%, 1g
Sugar: 6g
Weight Watchers Points: 3 Points

Kraft says: Made with Kraft cheese, garlic and other spices

Abi says: I sincerely enjoy Kraft’s Easy Mac microwave cups. I know that they create waste and cost too much, but they are the perfect amount of salty, cheesy macaroni product. I like them so much that even though I had multiple other varieties of the cups in my cupboard, I kept buying the Three Cheese version and ignoring the Regular, Alfredo and Bacon varieties. Yes, Bacon.

I finally told myself that I couldn’t buy another cup of Kraft Mac and Cheese (even if they were on sale) until I tried the other types. And now I know why I should trust my instincts and stop making arbitrary rules for myself.

This cup featured flavorless, slimy noodles in a sauce that so closely resembled a certain bodily fluid that I didn’t want to go near it. The noodles are similar to the pseudo-egg noodles one finds in a box of Pasta-Roni; about 1.5 inches long, a bit wavy and quite thin. These noodles are difficult to stab with a fork and thus I had to scoop them up, which is not my preferred pasta-eating method.

I know, this sounds really nit-picky, but think about how you eat noodles. When using a fork do you stab or do you scoop? Comments welcome.

The sauce lacked the robust flavor I’ve come to enjoy in other Kraft products and couldn’t be helped even with a liberal application of Italian herbs, garlic and parmesan cheese. And when you’re adding cheese to macaroni and cheese you’ve got a problem. Plus, the cheese and spices needed a good base to rest on and flavor. If you start with bad it doesn’t matter how many herbs and spices you add, you’ll still end up with an awful sauce.

Buying this product is like throwing a dollar in the trash.

SRP: $3.19
Serving: 1 meal, 9 oz.
Calories: 420
Fat: 28%, 18g
Cholesterol: 18%, 55mg
Sodium: 43%, 1030mg
Protein: 20g
Carbohydrates: 15%, 45g
Fiber: 8%, 2g

Stouffer’s says: Breaded Alaskan Pollock filet annd macaroni and cheese

Nicole says: After another offering from Stouffer’s “Classic Meals” line, I’m wondering where my parents went wrong. They never, ever served fish with macaroni and cheese. Frozen fish sticks were usually accompanied by a frozen veggie. Maybe some cream corn (cream corn rocks!) I can’t recall off the top of my head what they served with fresh fish, but I know it wasn’t mac and cheese. All these years, I’ve been missing out on this classic pairing.

So my Alaskan Pollock turned into a fried blow fish while nuking. I sort of freaked, didn’t want fish innards exploding all over the work microwave (and I didn’t want to buy another lunch,) so I removed the meal a minute before I was instructed on the second half of cooking (3 minutes, stir mac, 2-3 more minutes.) Bad move, it was not yet HOT in the middle, just warm. Re-cooked for 45 seconds, all the while fearing the worst for my puffy fish. It ended alright - no explosions of hot-air filled fried skin.

And the taste? Not bad at all. Ya know, for frozen fish heated in a microwave. I’d go so far as to say it cooks up just about as well as it would in the oven. The top and sides of the breading are actually crisp, though the bottom has suffered the standard fate of nuked breading. I wish I had some ketchup. Or tartar sauce. I thought I hated tartar sauce when I was young, but I really simply refused to try it. So I’ve only discovered in my mid-twenties that it’s yummy with fried fish. But this is still A-OK without. The size of the filet is quite generous considering this is only a nine ounce meal - it is approximately the size my fist, just flattened out just a bit.

Now to the mac and cheese, the real reason for this purchase (I wouldn’t buy the fried fish if it were with peas, or green beans, or mashed potatoes). It is cheesy and it bubbled and crusted just the tiniest bit around the edges - I LOVE that. The meal didn’t involve any actual burning, but portions were a bit harder than they “should” be. The noodles are mushy, but the noodle to sauce ratio probably perfect - this is not a cheese lake with a school of soft noodles swimming about, nor a pile of noodles with a bit of cheese melted over them.

I had very low expectations for this meal, but am so pleasantly surprised that it is tasty and satisfying. Nutritionally, the sodium content is a bit high, but otherwise it’s a low dose of fat, calories and carbs for the tasty fried fish and mac side. The extra half-star is for crispiness.

Welcome to the dance, Cinderella.

The links below will take you to review of the ten best microwaveable macaroni and cheese meals. Please note that these are the ten best meals we tried. There might be better meals out there, but we’re so sick of eating macaroni and cheese that it isn’t funny anymore. Enjoy our macaroni and cheese reviews:

1. Trader Joe’s Mac ‘n Cheese
2. Marie Callender’s Macaroni and Cheese
3. Amy’s Kitchen Macaroni and Cheese
4. Smart Ones Macaroni and Cheese
5. Kraft Easy Mac Cups
6. Stouffer’s Macaroni and Cheese
7. Betty Crocker Bowl Appetit Three-Cheese Rotini
8. Annie’s Microwaveable Mac & Cheese
9. Safeway Macaroni and Cheese
10. Betty Crocker Bowl Appetit Cheddar Broccoli Pasta

Price: $3.89 (worth it!)
Serving: 1/2 tray, 7 oz.
Calories: 360
Fat: 23%, 15g
Sodium: 25%, 590mg
Protein: 24g
Carbs: 14%, 42g
Fiber: 4%, 1g

Trader Joe says: Four Cheese: Cheddar, Swiss, Havarti, Gouda

Abi says: I was skeptical when I opened this box of TJ’s macaroni and cheese; it contained nothing more than a bunch of macaroni piled high with shredded cheese. That and butter.

“Ha!” I thought with awakening memories of Girl Scout camp. At the age of 10 I attended Girl Scout camp in rural Oregon and spent a week learning how to take care of and ride horses. Everything but the food was great and I learned some interesting lessons:

1. It isn’t that fun or nutritous to eat Girl Scout cookies for dessert every day for a week
2. Campfire songs are overrated
3. People from the city don’t know how to whittle
4. Just because you mixed cooked pasta and shredded cheese together doesn’t mean you actually made mac and cheese

I was a picky kid and didn’t eat much at camp. That was partly due to my macaroni and cheese preferences and partly due to the fact that I am a picky eater. I enjoy mac and cheese baked or from a box, but the prospect of just mixing some hot noodles with cheese in the hope that it would make some luscious comfort food seemed more than a bit absurd. By ‘more than a bit absurd’ I mean ‘disgusting’.

So when I opened up this box and found a bunch of shredded cheese over noodles, my hopes fell precipitously; I popped the tray in the microwave expecting nothing more than a mediocre noodles+cheese=lunch experience.

I could not have been more wrong in my assumptions. Trader Joe’s Macaroni and Cheese is clearly the best microwaveable macaroni and cheese in existence. If it was legal (and sane) to marry food, you’d see me walking down the aisle with a box of Trader Joe’s Macaroni and Cheese.

The cheese melts perfectly to become one with the noodles. I have seriously contemplated buying a couple of boxes of this, topping it with seasoned panko, broiling, and calling the whole thing my own homemade mac and cheese creation. This macaroni and cheese is so freaking good that if you are anywhere near a Trader Joe’s you need to buy it right now.

Eagerness aside, this is not a healthy meal. It is full of buttery cheesiness and delightfully firm noodles. Just 7 oz. will run you 360 calories. But when you think about it, there are about 360 calories in 2 small cookies. Go for the mac and cheese!